This relates to electronic devices and more particularly to self-configuration methods and devices.
Portable electronic devices, such as wireless and cellular telephones, digital media players (e.g., music players and video players), and hybrid devices that combine telephone and media playing functionality are known. These devices are typically configured to provide communications to a user in one or more formats. For example, a video iPod may be configured to play videos in MPEG-4 format, while music is played back in MP-3 format.
The media that is communicated to the user is typically stored in a compressed format on the electronic devices so that more information may be available to the user. This is particularly true with respect to portable media devices, such as music players and cellular telephones.
There are, however, many different formats for compressing multi-media information. For example, audio signals can be stored in MP-3, AC-3 or SBC formats (as well as many other formats). In order for the electronic devices to be able to decompress the information and play it back properly to the user, or in the case of a cellular call, to be able to decompress the transmitted voice signals fast enough so that the user experiences no delay, the electronic devices must have a particular piece of software for each specific format of compression. These pieces of software are generally referred to as CODECs.
One problem many users experience, however, is that they receive a file of compressed information and the electronic devices fails to play that file back. This failure can include total failure or a partial failure, such as a movie file that only plays back the audio track. These failures are typically the result of not having the proper CODEC on the electronic device.
A present attempt at working around this problem is to load many different CODECs on the electronic device so that the devices has a higher likelihood of having the necessary CODEC for any given piece of compressed information. This “solution,” however, is far from adequate because the CODECs can require a large amount of memory for storage, thereby increasing the cost of the device. In addition, regardless of how many CODECs are stored on the device, there is still always the potential for a file to be decompressed and the proper CODEC is not present on the device.
Accordingly, what is needed are methods and systems for enabling the electronic devices to obtain CODECs “on the fly” so that the proper CODEC is always available.